The Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the Securities Commission Malaysia and set aside a High Court decision on August 2020 to quash the SC’s Audit Oversight Board’s (AOB) enforcement actions against Afrizan Tarmili Khairul Azhar (AFTAAS) and its partners, namely Datuk Mohd Afrizan bin Husain, Haji Tamili Dulah Kusni and Khairul Azahar bin Ariffin.
This refers to a case back in 2020, when the AOB found AFTAAS in non-compliance with auditing standards, however, the High Court see aside SC’s claims. ATAAS was seeking RM35 million in damages against SC, citing it had lost many clients due the accusation.
With the latest result, SC says the decision of the Court of Appeal reinforces the robustness of the AOB’s enforcement framework and its processes. AFTAAS was sanctioned by the AOB for several breaches involving non-compliance with the auditing standards on fundamental and basic audit procedures. The AOB also found that some of the findings were recurring from the AOB’s previous inspection on AFTAAS, raising concerns on the capacity and capability of the firm.
The firm and its partners were prohibited from accepting as clients and auditing public interest entities (PIE) or schedule funds for a period of 12 months. In addition, the AOB also imposed fines of RM455,000 on AFTAAS, and RM88,000 each on Datuk Mohd Afrizan and Khairul respectively. Given the Court of Appeal decision, the AOB’s enforcement actions remains in ef
